Three months later: Youth policy still on the anvil

Original draft proposes introduction of English, Urdu and Mathematics in madrassas.

PESHAWAR: As against the June 26 announcement by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government to frame a ‘Youth Policy’ draft within 60 days, the draft has been submitted after a lapse of around three and a half months. It will take another three months for the policy to be processed for implementation.

The Youth Policy initial draft envisages integrated youth development through required action plan built upon three main pillars: economic, social and political empowerment of the youth.

K-P Assembly’s standing committee on youth affairs, headed by MPA Shagufta Malik, will fine-tune the third and final draft which would be tabled in the provincial assembly following the cabinet’s approval. The process is expected to be completed by December this year.

The original draft recommends introduction of contemporary subjects, including English, Urdu and Mathematics, in all Madrassas to bring their students into the national mainstream of education.

Seminary students maintain that they face problems in competing with students from English- or Urdu-medium educational institutes in the absence of knowledge of contemporary subjects.

Under the 18th constitutional amendment, the ministry for youth affairs has been devolved to the provinces. But since the required infrastructure was not available, no immediate action could be taken on formulating a youth policy.

However, following in the footsteps of the Punjab government, which approved a youth policy on May 28, the K-P government also announced in June that it would frame a provincial youth policy within 60 days with the help of an NGO, Bargad.

“Formulation of a youth policy with input from the youth is an encouraging step,” Shagufta Malik said. The youth policy would be truly representative and would address the youth issues, she added.  “The youth will play a major role in the formulation of the policy.”

Hailing from 24 districts of the province and also South and North Waziristan 260 youths actively participated in the consultative meetings for the preparation of the initial draft. Representatives of more than 100 organisations and institutions were also involved.

Consultation on the initial draft will be organised in the third week of October in which more than 100 representatives of civil society organisations will participate to review the draft and to give their recommendations for the final version.

According to the draft, the provincial youth face multiple challenges. Economic disparity, early child
marriages, lesser opportunities and unequal distribution of opportunities among rural and tribal youth has created unemployment causing frustration among them.

The draft recommends a separate youth directorate to implement all youth-related activities and to constitute an inter-departmental working group for better integration of all their development work.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2012.